Serious Questions At The Grafton Town Board Meeting
by Alex Brooks
A question from former Supervisor Tyler Sawyer at public comment time at the end of the Grafton Town Board meeting on Monday brought forth the information from Deputy Supervisor Cathy Goyer that she had expanded the hours of the Secretary to the Supervisor to full time. She said she did this “a week or two after the May Town Board Meeting.”
This appeared to be news to all four of the elected Board members. Both Barbara Messenger and Rick Ungaro told this reporter they learned about this “today.”
[private]The position has been in limbo since Sue Putnam resigned from it at the beginning of this year. It was described early in the year as “Town Secretary,” and Nicole Hemendinger was hired to fill it on a temporary basis, and applications were solicited and received for the permanent position. But last month Town Attorney Sal Ferlazzo explained to the Board that there is no position of “Town Secretary,” and the position held by Hemendinger is “Secretary to the Supervisor.” This meant that the choice of who is hired for the position is entirely up to the Supervisor.
Ferlazzo said the Board could create a position of “Town Secretary,” but if they did it would be subject to civil service hiring rules and applicants would have to take a civil service test. The Board took no immediate action, leaving the position under the control of the Supervisor and informing the applicants that it was already filled. Hemendinger remained in the job, and at public comment time last month several Town officials spoke highly of her work and said they were pleased that she would continue.
However, during those discussions Marie Claus said very specifically that she wanted the position to remain 25 hours a week or less with no benefits, and Barbara Messenger concurred, but no motion was passed at that time expressing the will of the Board.
At this meeting Town Attorney Sal Ferlazzo said that although Goyer has the authority to choose who fills the position, the Town Board controls the budget for the position and Goyer would not have the authority to exceed the amount budgeted for it.
Barbara Messenger told this reporter she believes making the position full time with benefits will create a budgetary problem which the Board will have to discuss the next time it meets.
Grafton School Building
The meeting began with a description of the Berlin School Board’s offer of the Grafton School building. Ferlazzo said the building is available for $1, but the offer has a deadline of June 30, and it requires the Town to not only accept the buildings and grounds as is but also to indemnify the School District for any subsequent claims such as environmental contamination. Ferlazzo said, “That’s crazy” and would not recommend that the Town accept the building on those terms.
Ferlazzo said purchase of a commercial property normally begins with something he called a “phase 1 study” which would alert the purchaser to any environmental liabilities.
He said the short deadline makes it difficult to investigate the building or to consult with the public about their opinions about the Town accepting the building. Ferlazzo said he will give the Town a letter expressing his concerns about the terms of the offer, and he will try to negotiate with the School District to modify the terms. He also said he does not recommend a formal referendum as a means of gauging public opinion on the issue. He suggested instead a public hearing in which everyone who cared to express themselves on the subject could be heard.
The Town’s committee for the school building issue, consisting of Doug Sauer, Barbara Messenger and Jim Goyer, is planning to meet this week to discuss how to react to the School District’s offer.
FOIL Requests
Deputy Supervisor Cathy Goyer said although the Town already has a policy allowing it to charge 25 cents a page for documents copied under a FOIL request, she suggested the Town might want to institute an administrative fee for time spent over 2 hours responding to large requests for documents.
She said the Town has one very large request now. It was learned later in the meeting that the request she was referring to was that of Tyler Sawyer, who wanted to see parts of the Town’s financial records.
Sawyer denied that his request was onerous, saying they could be copied onto a disk in just a few minutes. The difference of opinion seemed to arise because the Town was printing records on paper, and Sawyer was expecting to be given an electronic file.
In any case, there was little enthusiasm among other Board members for increasing fees related to FOIL requests, so they moved on without any action.
Audit
Deputy Supervisor Cathy Goyer said the Town’s books have not had a full audit in quite a few years, and she thought it would be a good idea to ask the State Comptroller’s office to come in and examine the books. She noted that while hiring a private firm to do an audit could cost the Town $8,000 or more, there is no cost to the Town to have the State audit its books. Everyone seemed to think that was a good idea, and Goyer agreed to contact the State Comptroller’s office about it.
Grafton Trail Riders
Many from the Grafton Trail Riders organization were in the audience expecting to see the variance proposed last month allowing them to have overnight camping in travel trailers approved this month.
Code Enforcement Officer Tom Withcuskey said, “Everything I’ve asked them to do, they’ve done,” and he recommended that the variance be approved. The complication was that State law limits them to 60 hours of camping once they have more than four campers, and the Town wanted to keep its variance in line with State law. The Board and Town Attorney Sal Ferlazzo rewrote the variance resolution so that it didn’t mention specific weekends when camping was allowed but simply held them to a total of 60 hours a year during which they could have five or more campers staying on the property. Most of this time would be used up by their biggest event of the year, the Over-The-Mountain event in September.
However, because of these last minute changes to the resolution, Marie Claus and Barbara Messenger wanted to see a clean copy of the resolution and have a chance to consider the new limits. This meant that the matter was put off yet again until the next meeting.
Withcuskey Re-Appointed
At the beginning of the year, the new administration was concerned about Tom Withcuskey being both Planning Board Chairman and Building Inspector. As a result, they appointed him as Building Inspector/Codes Enforcement Officer for only half the year. Now facing the imminent expiration of that appointment, the Board decided to re-appoint him for the rest of year.
Hole In The Roof
Rick Ungaro reported that he got a call from Cathy Goyer saying that water was coming into the Judges’ chambers. Goyer said when they pulled down the attic stairs, they could see daylight through the roof. Ungaro and Dog Control Officer Rick Bly went up on the roof and made repairs to the roofing. They did not say how the roof was damaged or if there was damage from the water that came in.
Security
Goyer discussed security arrangements in the wake of several incidents of computer tampering. She said a lot of doors are being locked that weren’t being locked before. She had asked the leadership of the Rescue Squad who had keys to the building, and they sent a letter naming the people who had keys and stating that they needed to have access to the bathroom in the Town Hall.
Goyer said she is getting estimates on having a door installed in the hallway that runs between the Town offices and the meeting room so that the bathroom would be accessible to the Rescue Squad people, or other people using the meeting room, while Town offices remained behind a locked door.
Assessors
At public comment time Pat Ivory asked the Board if they had any plans to hold a referendum on whether the Town wanted to go back to elected assessors, as some had suggested during the campaign last fall. Town Attorney Sal Ferlazzo said the Town has a contract with the current Assessor through 2013, so the issue is moot until then, but he said he could research the Town’s options on this issue if the Board wanted him to. Tyler Sawyer said once you switch to an appointed assessor, you cannot ever go back to elected assessors. He said there is a letter in the Town’s files from an attorney from the Association of Towns saying that it’s irreversible.
Other Matters
Cathy Goyer said the grant writer appointed by the Town last month had to move out of the area so he will not be able to do anything for the Town. It appears that the Planning Board Secretary, Jessica Crandall, will be able to stay on until the end of the year so the search for a new one is postponed.
Cathy Goyer said the Grafton Youth Summer Program is accepting registrations for this summer. The forms are available at the Town Hall, and completed forms can be dropped off there also. Proof of immunizations must be included unless they are on file from a previous application.
The program is open to Grafton residents 5 years old to 10 years old, and it will take place July 16 to August 16, 9 am to 2 pm at the Grafton Elementary School.
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